American Medicinal Spirits Company

The American Medicinal Spirits Company appears to
have been formed around 1920 to meet the need of providing medicinal whiskey to
the lame and blind during Prohibition after the passage of the Volstead Act in 1919.
The process of consolidation in the liquor industry had started prior to
the passage of the Volstead Act. The smaller companies resisted take-over and often
managed to undercut the big companies prices and stay in favor with their local
patrons. Prohibition would deal the death blow to most. The number of
distilling establishments in the United States started to decline after hitting a peak
number of 965 establishments in 1899. By 1914, the number had dropped to 434
establishments and throughout the Prohibition years it ranged from only 27-33
distillers. Among those was the The American Medicinal Spirits
Company-one distilling family's answer to the crushing Federal
Legislation. There would be only handful of companies ready when the
ban was lifted to consolidate and dominate the liquor market. The American Medicinal Spirits Company would be one of them and was one
of the few distillers legally selling booze during the prohibited years.

The Loophole

SEC. 6. No one shall manufacture, sell, purchase, transport,
or prescribe any liquor without first obtaining a permit from the commissioner
so to do, except that a person may, without a permit, purchase and use liquor
for medicinal purposes when prescribed by a physician as herein provided, and
except that any person who in the opinion of the commissioner is conducting a
bona fide hospital or sanitarium engaged in the treatment of persons suffering
from alcoholism, may, under such rules, regulations, and conditions as the
commissioner shall prescribe, purchase and use, in accord once with the methods
in use in such institution liquor, to be administered to the patients of such
institution under the direction of a duly qualified physician employed by such
institution.

"SEC. 7. No one but a physician holding a permit to prescribe
liquor shall issue any prescription for liquor. And no physician shall prescribe
liquor unless after careful physical examination of the person for whose use
such prescription is sought, or if such examination is found impracticable, then
upon the best information obtainable, he in good faith believes that the use of
such liquor as a medicine by such person is necessary and will afford relief to
him from some known ailment. Not more than a pint of spirituous liquor to be
taken internally shall be prescribed for use by the same person within any
period of ten days and no prescription shall be filled more than once. Any
pharmacist filling a prescription shall at the time endorse upon it over his own
signature the word "canceled," together with the date when the liquor was
delivered, and then make the same a part of the record that he is required to
keep as herein provided. Volstead Act provisions

Example of Liquor Prescription.

The Wathen Family Business

Otho Wathen was obviously a very talented man. He was a graduate of Notre
Dame, class of 1879/80. He and his brother took after their father. Otho got into the liquor business long
before Prohibition. In fact, he came from a long line of Wathens who were early settlers
and early distillers in Kentucky. Members of the Wathen family
had been making whiskey for many many years. Otho's fore-fathers
made whiskey for both sides in the Civil War. Otho, was the son of John Bernard
Wathen, a highly successful distiller in the business for at least fifty
years. So it was no surprise that Ortho and his brother Richard Eugene
both followed in their father's footsteps. Together they ran the
distillery in Louisville named the R.E. Wathen Distillery and quickly became successful
in their own right.

The brothers are referred to in a Sermon given in 1933,
"Three years later, (based on the rest of the sermon, it would have been
about 1912) we come to Indiana and papa got a job. He (the speaker's
father) was a rider, breaking horses for the ranchers, and farmers, and so
forth. He come out there to break some hackney ponies for a--a rich man named O.
H. Wathen, lives on the Utica Pike. He's a great owner of the Colonels, and also
the R. E. Wathen Distillery, and all them in Louisville, and O. H. and R. E. And
daddy was breaking saddle horses for him. And then he got hurt, and he went to
being a private chauffeur for him."

During Prohibition, under the direction of Otho and Richard, the
Wathens consolidated operations in Louisville and established the American
Medicinal Spirits Company (AMS). At the time, they owned the Old
Grand-Dad brand. as well as Hill & Hill,
BourbonDeLuxe (which was later owned by National Distillers) and
Hermitage brands. The Wathen family sold AMS to
National Distillers in 1929.

Word
Mark OLD GRAND-DAD WHISKEY. FIRST USE: 1900. FIRST USE IN
COMMERCE: 1900 Filing Date January 30, 1925 Registration Date June 30,
1925 Owner (REGISTRANT) OLD GRAND-DAD DISTILLERY CO. CORPORATION KENTUCKY
P.O. BOX 665 LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY (LAST LISTED OWNER) NATIONAL DISTILLERS
AND CHEMICAL CORPORATION CORPORATION BY CHANGE OF NAME FROM VIRGINIA 99
PARK AVENUE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10016

Word Mark OLD GRAND-DAD: Whiskey. FIRST USE: 1882.
FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 1882 Filing Date November 17, 1960 Registration
Date September 19, 1961 Owner (REGISTRANT) NATIONAL DISTILLERS AND
CHEMICAL CORPORATION DBA NATIONAL DISTILLERS PRODUCTS CO. CORPORATION
VIRGINIA 99 PARK AVE. NEW YORK NEW YORK

Word
Mark HILL AND HILL : WHISKY. FIRST USE: 1879. FIRST USE IN
COMMERCE: 1879 Filing Date January 20, 1925 Registration Date August 18,
1925 Owner (REGISTRANT) HILL & HILL DISTILLING COMPANY CORPORATION
DELAWARE OWENSBORO KENTUCKY (LAST LISTED OWNER) NATIONAL DISTILLERS AND
CHEMICAL CORPORATION NATIONAL DISTILLERS PRODUCTS CO. CORPORATION BY
CHANGE OF NAME FROM VIRGINIA 99 PARK AVENUE NEW YORK NEW YORK 10016

Taken from: THE LIQUOR INDUSTRY By Morris Victor Rosenbloom
Published by Ruffsdale Distilling Company 1937 Edition.

“National Distillers Products Corp., the largest single unit in
the American liquor industry, presents a story of unparalleled progress and
expansion. Its development may be traced back to the old "Whiskey Trust" or
Distilling Company, which died a slow death during the years immediately
preceding Prohibition. Through a series of well-planned moves, by September,
1933, National Distillers, under the names of several
subsidiaries, controlled seven distilleries in the United States. Further
acquisitions such as that in the firm of Alex D. Shaw & Co., Inc., and
National Canadian Distillers, Inc., increased National Distillers'
dominance in the American liquor field. Prior to January 1, 1936, National
Distillers Products Corp. did not itself own any real property. Since
that date, however, the company has become the actual owner of distilleries and
other properties of most of the subsidiaries with the intention of eventually
being an operating instead of a holding company. National Distillers
operates nine distilleries having an annual capacity of about 40,000,000
gallons. These nine comprise the following (with the location and the date of
establishment given in parentheses) Large (Large, Pa.; 1765) ;
Overholt (Broad Ford, Pa.; 1810) ; Old Crow (Woodford Co.,
Ky.; 1835) ; Mt. Vernon (Baltimore, Md. ; 1854) ; Old Taylor
(Woodford Co., Ky. ; 1879) ; Sunny Brook (Louisville, Ky.; 1892) ;
Carthage (Cincinnati, Ohio; 1893) ; Peoria (Peoria, Ill.;
1898) ; Wathen (Louisville, Ky.; 1900). All of the afore-mentioned
distilleries are wholly owned with the sole exception of the one at Peoria,
which is leased. The warehouses of National Distillers have a
total capacity of about 1,350,000 barrels, all owned except 83,000 barrels upon
leased premises at Peoria, Ill. On December 31, 1935, more than 900,000 barrels
were in storage. With regard to the relative productive capacity of
National Distillers, the company stated in their 1935 annual report that
"the total production of whiskies in the United States during 1935 was
184,839,630 gallons, an increase of about 70% over the previous year. Your
company produced 26,214,124 gallons, or about 14'7o of the total. Total
withdrawals of whiskies from bond in the United States during the year amounted
to about 62,000,000 gallons of which your company withdrew about 11,000,000
gallons, or about 18%. At the end of 1935, the total stocks of whiskies
remaining in bond in the United States were approximately 207,153,540 gallons,
an increase of about 125% over the previous year. Of this total, your company
owned about 43,000,000 gallons, or approximately 20%, your company's holdings of
whiskey having increased 547% over the previous year." National Distillers,
according to their comparative consolidated income account for the years ended
December 31, 1933, 1934, and 1935, shows a net income in these years of
$6,086,906 in 1933, of $11,134,768 in 1934, and of $7,009,238 in 1935. The per
share earnings on the company's common stock amounted to $3.13, $5.51, and $3.44
for the same three years, respectively". Besides Seton Porter, who actively
heads the company as president, a number of other men have been responsible for
the growth of NationalDistillers. Two of the most
important are Daniel K. Weiskopf, vice-president and director, and Otho H.
Wathen, president of American Medicinal Spirits and
vice-president and director of National Distillers"."

No doubt the Wathens and others like them were preparing for the end of
Prohibition probably from the day Prohibition started. By the time the ban
was over, the Wathens and their company were in position to share in the
Post-Prohibition market. They owned many well-known names as shown below.
After repeal, supposedly only Richard continued in the business. However
that seems contradicted by the above passage. Nevertheless, The company
named the American Medicinal Spirits Company although apparently
swallowed up by the larger NationalDistillers,
maintained the rights to the names of the brands until about 1974 according to
the Patent Office Records.

Brands Trademarked by American Medicinal Spirits Company
After Prohibition

Word Mark A.M.S. Translations THE TRADE-MARK
CONSISTS OF THE INITIALS "A.M.S." WHICH ARE THE INTIALS OF THE WORDS
"AMERICAN MEDICINAL SPIRITS" CONTAINED IN THE NAME OF APPLICANT. :
WHISKEY. FIRST USE: 1928. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 1928 . Filing Date
September 20, 1934. Registration Date December 25, 1934 Owner
(REGISTRANT) AMERICAN MEDICINAL SPIRITS COMPANY, THE CORPORATION MARYLAND
SEVENTH STREET AND BERNHEIM LANE LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY

*The Jim Beam Company purchased several of the names in 1987 including the
most famous and oldest of them, Old Crow.

Bottles

One item was sold at auction in the United Kingdom: Special Old
Reserve-1916 Fine Old Bourbon. Made Spring 1916, bottled Fall 1933. Produced by
Mellwood Distillery Company, Distillery No. 34 5th District of Ky., bottled by
The American Medicinal Spirits Company Inc. One pint. Screw cap, paper tax
strip printed with dates. Level: 4.5 cm from base of cap. 100 degrees proof
Estimated selling price was 140-170 pound sterling and price realized was 200
pounds. ($321 USD). A Similar medicinal whiskey item of the same vintage, one
Made Fall 1916, bottled Fall 1933. Fine Old Bourbon, made before Prohibition.
Produced by Harry E. Wilken, Distillery No. 368, 5th District of Ky. Bottled by
The American Medicinal Spirits Company. One pint. Screw cap, paper seal.
Level: 6cm from base of cap. 100 proof brought 130 pounds ($208 USD) Similar
item pictured below. Another example is presently on Ebay with a fair
reserve but no bidders.